Them' And Stranger
by Anark
Summary: Sent from his own world by powers unknown Dylan, a simple worker from Floccesy Ranch, now wonders the living dead streets of Japan as this unfamiliar world tears itself apart around them how are Dylan and his Pokémon supposed to cope surrounded on all sides by 'Them?
1. Chapter 1

"And if you'll just sign here please." A green gloved finger poked at the dotted line upon the paper.

Black ink swirled onto the page as the trainer signed her name, a pokéball resting upon the granite countertop beside the form, with a forlorn face before placing the pen back in its holder.

"Hey, don't feel so bad." The breeder scooped up the completed form, bending down slightly to gaze into the trainers downturned eyes with his own pair of brown. "Look at it this way; you've actually done the best thing for her giving her to us, and from what you've told me about her temper most trainers I know of would've just released her rather than bringing her to a ranch where we cater to her needs and possibly find her a new home." A re-assuring smile erupted beneath his nose that bent a bit too far the right to have been born with, while eyebrows rose to meet the red bandana before he disappeared beneath the counter to file the form away. "And anyway you can visit her any time you want, okay?" He popped up again.

The trainer nodded in response still feeling retched inside for just abandoning her Pokémon but a bit better thanks to the breeders efforts, whose name was Dylan going by the name card pinned onto his grey uniform shirt. She watched as plucked up the pokéball, the Camerupt within giving a glare through the semi translucent red glass, wondering if she was doing the right thing handing her Pokémon over to these people. She had received the Camerupt through a trade so she had expected some retaliation but the damage the Camerupt had caused whenever it was let out was just horrendous , and of course the trainer she had received it from had done a runner so there was no way of giving it back. Handing over the Camerupt to Floccesy had been the trainers last resort option if she couldn't get the Camerupt to calm down within a week or so.

"Have you said goodbye yet?" Dylan asked.

The Trainer nodded solemnly before exiting causing the bell above the door to ring joyfully.

Leaning upon the countertop with a sigh Dylan examined the contained Camerupt, apparently named Carly as stated by the recently completed form, who looked relatively healthy from what he could see of her well-kept fur, the defined blue circles along her sides being proof of good hygiene, though the volcanoes upon her back looked to be giving of an unhealthy amount of smoke which thee Pokéballs internal circuitry hurriedly got rid of. But of course he'd have to release her from the pokéball before giving a final verdict and seeing as the reception area he was currently in was already too small to swing a Mouth let alone a Camerupt around, with so many shelves overflowing with various Pokémon care products for sale, he'd have to go outside.

"Alight Carly lets go find Lenora to help give you a proper examination." He stated cheerfully, in an attempt to shake the awkwardness of the situation, as he tucked in the pokeball among his own four in the small bag that strapped around his waist like a belt.

There were two doors to the room often called a reception, just to sound sophisticate, one which the trainer had just gone through that led onto a small porch out front and another behind the counter at the back of the room nestled between two large piles of bagged Pokémon food, separate piles for the herbivores and carnivores. Passing through this door Dylan was led deeper into the barn, staff only of course, where various Pokémon were housed if they were ill, had special needs or just for a check-up. Now on the other side of the door Dylan turned to face the wall where a large board was hung just beside the door.

Now this board was a very important board that allowed Floccesy Ranch to run as well as it did At the top of the board were the names of each person who worked on the ranch arranged in columns that the ranch owner wrote in every morning the jobs each worker would have to do in their columns, whoever was working in the reception that day often had the least filled column and that person today was Dylan, as the workers completed the tasks they would then return to the barn for a quick drink and a snack while placing a tick next to their completed task.

Dylan clicked his tongue repeatedly as he traced his finger along the board, stopping at Lenora name and scrolled down instead to the first unticked task. He smirked upon seeing the task she had been given; Basculin feeding, one of the most hated tasks on the ranch next to killing Pokémon for their meat (while not many restaurants offered such meals there was still a demand for it).

"Right then so she's either hiding somewhere or down by the river trying not to get bitten to pieces." He noted with a nod and turned around to walk down the aisle with stalls containing Pokémon on both sides.

A few of these stalls had drip bags hung upon hooks feeding antibiotics and sedatives into the Pokémon, while each of the works on the ranch carried a small device that connected to a pokéball to heal the Pokémon inside much like the machines at a Pokecenter would, although at a slower rate, there were some injuries that required a longer recovery process that such machines could not offer.

The aisle ended with another door which led into the garage where the buggy and trailer where normally stored whenever not in use, both of which were currently nowhere to be seen replaced with the deafening sound of heavy rain drumming against the metal roof and sides as the wind spun around inside through the wide open door.

"Eyuck." Dylan commented upon the ghastly weather feeling a lot more thankful that he had been given reception duty for the day. He tapped the ground with his right foot in thought, the brown boots tapping only adding to the racket. He was perfectly capable of giving the newly arrived Camerupt a checkup by himself but he much preferred doing so with Lenora around as she was so much better with the whole medical side of things and always did her blonde hair up in a neat little bun before doing anything…

A loud crash of thunder accompanied the flash of lightening slamming Dylan back to reality to where a shadow in the garage doorway greeted him. Dylan almost leapt out of his skin in fright, brown eyes open wide hurriedly traced the shadow to the owner who wore a hooded cloak that hid their face terrifyingly well as well as any clothing underneath.

"…Hello?" Dylan approached the figure standing just outside in the rain trying hard not to stammer. The figure remained silently. "Sir…are…are you okay?" He took a tentative step foreward, his mind screaming for him not to for some reason and eyes struggling to pick out any features but coming up with nothing not even the damp patches that should be there as the heavy rain drops would've demanded. Something was very wrong.

ARE YOU TO BE THEIR SALVATION?

Dylan leapt back in terror, his left elbow striking a propped up broom that clattered to the ground, as what could only be described as a voice shouted in his mind but his ears swore they hadn't heard. "Who…who are YOU!?" Dylan made no attempt to his fear as his voice escalated to a shout. Who or what ever this thing was he wanted nothing to with it! Any logical thought had flown out the window as Dylan scrambled to the door which had previously passed through from the barn.

OR WILL YOU FALL…

He pulled desperately at the handle but the door remained firmly shut ignoring the breeder's panic stricken state. Dylan turned back to the stranger pressing his back firmly against the door, ignoring the handle that stabbed into his side, praying that Arceus would remove whatever that thing was and let the world never see it again.

…TO DEVASTATION?

And that was it for Dylan. His knees buckled as his mind snapped sending him sliding to the ground with the wall offering no support to his weak grasping hands. He swayed on his knees as his eyelids demanded to be shut just before he fell to the left, skull connecting with the hard concrete.

**And thus the first chapter is done. This idea has been spinning around in my head for a few days now so I've been meaning to get it down and all the details, like names yes I'm looking at you Dylan, sewn in. Anyhoo hope you enjoyed it and in the next chapter the gang should be arriving. :D**

**Now as you can see Dylan is an OC because I couldn't find any ranchers or breeders that I liked of which I really wanted to use for this story so I threw him together from looking at the sprite, but you shall be glad to know that other than him and his pokemon no other OC's directly related the story should be appearing. Other than that stranger of course who I have no idea where they fit in in all this mess at all and maybe some stranger now and then.**

**Another quick note I have to make is that due to the manga of Highschool Of The Dead being effectively dead (hehehehe) I will being attempting fill in the various gaps with aid from Google.**


	2. Chapter 2

"Don't shoot until I say so!" Kiriko ordered, ignoring the heavy rains attempt to drag the short stands of dark brown hair over her eyes, while water dripped from her shoulders and down the back of her navy blue police uniform. "We can't see well in the rain, so don't run!" The partially hidden forms of 'Them' just a few yards up the street were evidence of the statement.

Each member of the group in front her gave a small nod of acknowledgement having already tactfully arranged themselves with Takashi at the front, sided by Rei on his right and Saeko on his left, and Khota guarding the groups right flank and Saya the groups left while Kiriko followed up the rear. All of this thought up by the group's genius Saya as a way to protect Alice and Miss Shizuka who were guarded even more by faithful Zeke.

What made this group of particular interest is that with the exception of Kiriko and Alice all of them had been attending Fujimi High School, Shizuka had been the school nurse and a particular favourite of many of the male students, though the girls had ditched the uniform in favour of more comfortable attire currently hidden beneath their ponchos and coats. Saeko gripped the ornate sword tighter in her left hand, a gift from Saya's father, the majority of her sopping wet purple hair politely stayed out of her eyes as she gleefully looked forward to decapitating 'Them'. Takashi glared at 'Them' from beneath the wide brimmed water proof fedora giving it a quick tug down at the front. Rei held her own rifle so that the bayonet at the tip was pointed towards 'Them' and slightly upward, her own being much drier and a lighter shade of brown than, Kiriko, her mother's as the waist length strands had taken refuge beneath her poncho hood. A maddened grin ripped across Khotas chubby face beneath his glasses being the most excited out of the group at the prospect of blowing a hole through many an un-dead skull. Saya held a narrow gaze with 'Them' through the sight of her gun whilst making hurried simulations of how the next few moments would play out in her mind. Shizuka held little Alice close to her completely unaware of the weight of her titanic boobs now resting upon Alice's skull as two long strands of blonde hair poked out of her own hood to frame her face. Alice meanwhile, was being shielded by her innocence, kept tight hold of Zeke in her arms thankful that the pup didn't squirm.

'They' had drawn closer lumbering their way past another road leading to another of the residential area. The group started to make their own advance towards the dozen or so of 'Them' trying to ignore the near overwhelming stench of rotten flesh.

"Hello…" A voice came from behind 'Them', drawing both groups to a halt in surprise. A few of 'Them' turned their heads to where the voice had originated and groaned. "Excuse me…could, could you tell me where I am?" 'They' turned away from the group of survivalists and instead flocked back down the road to their new and noisier prey. Other than the scuffling and hissing of the dead all was silent for a moment until. "…HOLY BOUFFALANT SHIT!"

* * *

Not even the bugs wanted this place anymore, the soil as devoid of life as the surface where the dead walked ran by their shattered minds now incomplete without working nerves or heart. If someone wanted to be poetic in someone they could say that 'They' were trying to become complete once again by taking what the living still had, but of course anyone who thought like that was now wandering amongst 'Their' ranks.

Minutes before and a street or two away the same group of surviving students had methodically exited a now 'Them'-free garden through the square iron gate, Alice's new red bike abandoned on the soaking ground in front of the two corpses while Saeko's parasol guarded the garden gate. A solitary bolt of lightning rumbled into the garden and left just as quick as if it were afraid of the plague that now gripped the panicking planet, and left it a farewell gift. Upon the red speckled grass surrounded by blank concrete walls a new body lay which the rain was all too eager to wash over the new arrival before he stirred. The heavy rain drops made quick work of soaking through the fabric down into the young man's skin as lay asleep on his side.

Dylan awoke with a quite groan scrunching his face in discomfort from the pounding head ache he had, he rolled onto his stomach in order to free his now numb left arm, joints creaking like rusty hinges from the cold rain. He shivered uncontrollably as he pulled himself up into a kneeling position, hand placed upon his forehead, green gloved fingers left to the now soaking red bandana, to hold his head from falling off. Idly he began looking around taking in his new surroundings not entirely sure where he was or how he got there, there were concrete walls around him with a fold out wooden stool beside one of them for some reason, a flower bed with trampled flowers, some red stuff on the ground in front of him, and a bike in front of two corpses.

Dylan's eyes snapped wide open, breathing accelerating rapidly to a clearly unhealthy rate as he scrambled along the ground to press his back against the concrete garden wall helpless to do anything but stare at them in shock. Whoever these poor people where they had been dead for a while as their eyes had already rotted away leaving black sludge to trail down their cheeks, the corpse closest to him was of a woman dressed in simple blue jeans and a blood stained blouse with much of the blood emanating from a large gash on her hip and there was also a large puddle of sickly brown blood emanating from her head but Dylan was unable to see why from his position, further away was another corpse sliced from the belt of their blue jeans upwards though from Dylan's fearful position he was unable to tell if they were male or female. He sat there for a minute, drawing his knees up to his chin, just trying to get a hold of his breathing and calm down not daring to blink letting the disgusting stink of rotting flesh invade him.

"It- it's okay Dylan." He muttered to himself, shivering from the overwhelming shock running through his system. "Th-the Police will be he-here soon. S-somones bound to have called them. The-then when Officer Jenny is here, you can just ex-explain everyth-thing." His teeth chattered from the cold rain seeping into his bones while his mind began to play tricks.

A moan here and shuffle of feet there and Dylan's brown eyes would snap to its source hidden behind the grey wall. The police would never believe him. A cloaked stranger just appearing that spoke when he didn't and then making him faint and appear…where ever this place was, he'd be the prime suspect of this murder. He'd be put in jail! He'd lose his job! He'd after to move to a whole new region just to be able to even apply for a new one!

"C-calm down D-Dylan." He chattered to himself quietly once again in an attempt to get a hold of his over-reacting imagination. "Eve-everything will be fine…!" I an idea occurred to him, the outright lack of anyone alive other than himself had started to ring a few alarm bells and as the police didn't seem to be arriving any time soon he could call them himself.

He curled the edge of his right glove towards his hand so as the expose the Xtransceiver strapped to his wrist with the black touch screen currently displaying the current time in white text of which was rimmed by the green plastic with the familiar dot of the tiny camera placed just above. Dylan frowned at the screen that currently displayed four zero's indicating that either it was midnight or that the clock had been reset, and seeing as that despite the gloomy weather it was obviously day it was more likely to be the latter than the former. Dylan ignored the growing anxiety in his mind and pressed the small green button on the side, once for his contacts thankfully still there and twice to bring up the keyboard upon which he tapped out the number for the Unova police department. A small white dot appeared in the centre of the screen appeared from which three arcs flashed as the small system attempted to connect with a corresponding satellite that would be waiting up many miles above the Earth's atmosphere. The Xtransceiver stopped trying stating upon its screen in white text that it was unable to connect; Dylan frowned at this having used the Xtransciever in much worse weather before and so tried again with similar luck.

Dylan let out a shivering sigh and decided that he'd rather go and find a police station, or another living person, than stay with the corpses in the pouring rain waiting to die of pneumonia. Dylan almost cringed at his minds poor choice of words. He slowly stood up knees threatening to give way at any moment; Dylan had never been very good with death especially when a person was involved, a Pokémon dying was one thing seeing as many of them didn't live that long but a human was completely different, which happened a lot more often that society liked to believe especially whenever a trainers mangled corpse was stumbled upon by some little kid hanging around a random route, such occasions mainly happened around routes where more powerful Pokémon lived. He politely moved as quietly as he could, as one always should among the dead, towards the gardens iron gate where as luck would have it a parasol awaited. Had the situation been a bit lighter hearted Dylan would've stated something about his day brightening up.

With the brown parasol up, the waxed paper and the thin wood beams holding it together doing a fine job of holding back the rain, Dylan stepped into the narrow street and instantly regretted it. Blood, everywhere there was blood in splatters and streaks that littered the walls and street, not even the neighbourhood watch sign placed just in front of the opposite garden wall to his left hadn't escaped being decorated. Dylan could almost feel his breakfast starting to rise up his throat. This hadn't been a murder; it had been a massacre and yet still the police hadn't arrived to investigate or even take away the corpses but still why were there long streaks of blood along the road as if someone had been trying to walk with a large gash on them, but still the amount of blood appeared to be too much for someone to lose and still be moving let alone conscious.

Dylan stood still for a few seconds to gather up his courage before pressing onwards to his left taking care not to make any sound as many of us do in a new place so as not to alert the monsters that lurk to our presence. He whimpered upon passing a headless corpse that exposed the spinal cord and the two pipes that had once been housed by the flesh of the neck. Dylan forced himself to continue all the while trying to force the image out of his head. Just where in the name of MewTwo was he!? He came across several other scenes of human corpses missing various appendages and body bits that exposed the internal organs that allowed the human body to work properly. Dylan had past many remnants of the chaotic hours that had occurred before his arrival; a crashed car, warped iron gates that had snapped open and a downed power line that Dylan wisely avoided in case there was still power coursing through it, but despite the many corpses he saw he hadn't seen or heard a single Pokémon neither dead or alive and normal Pokémon were everywhere. It just didn't add up.

The stench had gotten stronger, that horrible stench that made Dylans skin crawl with disgust but he couldn't turn back now; he could see someone just ahead through the misty downpour, actually he could see a lot of people, a large group in fact. Dylan almost leapt for joy, finally he had found some people in this ghost town, and jogged towards them, shoes thumping happily upon the drowning road. This is wrong, Dylan's joy started to fade, the stench was only getting stronger as he got nearer and the group didn't sound…right. He slowly down to a walking pace before drawing closer as the group moved away, identity still hidden by the protective rain.

Dylan opened his mouth to speak but only a feeble wheeze arose while dread pooled in his stomach. Something was very wrong, not as wrong as with that stranger but still very wrong.

Dylan stopped and took a breath of the foul odour to combat his fear and spoke. "Hello…" He called drawing the group ahead to a halt, their concealed forms turned and groaned weakly. "Excuse me…could, could you tell me where I am?"he spoke again, unable to hide the fear in his voice this time.

The group started to advance towards him making painful groans as they shuffled slowly. Dylan smiled thinking that his fear and unease had just been about nothing, and yet it just seemed to increase with each passing moment, his right hand slithered into the bag on his belt and grasped one of his pokéballs firmly while the parasol trembled slightly in his left. The rain almost seemed to sigh with pitiful regret and allowed the veil of mist to rise for all to see.

Dylan's skin changed colour to match the pristine white of his wide eyes when they had rested upon the group in front of his. Oh dear Arceus this was not right at all.

"…HOLY BOUFFALANT SHIT!"

'They' charged, a sphere or red and white was thrown into the air, the survivors ran to aid another.


	3. Chapter 3

The pink creature bellowed as its features came into being from the red beams of light that had poured from the red and white sphere, the rain continued to hammer down intent on soaking through this odd creatures white fleece that encircled its neck and the top of its head.

"Flaffy, cotton spore!" Dylan shouted, a trembling hand pointed at the approaching horde. He ignored the currently Empty pokeball that rested beside his feet.

Flaffy turned from her trainer to where he had behind her, trying to ignore how the rain dripped down through her thin pink fur and the horrendous smell, Flaffy tilted her head and her blue sphere tipped tail drooped in confusion and fear. She frowned. Surely her trainer didn't wish for her to attack these other trainers? Her little black eyes widened upon her noticing the gaping holes and missing limbs these trainers possessed. A memory surfaced. She was a Mareep. It had been movie night at the ranch. A Zombie movie had been chosen, during all of which she had sat cowering behind Dylan.

"Flaffy!" Dylan shouted in fear as his partner just stood rooted to the spot. 'They' were going to get her!

Gunshots rang muffled through the rain, startling both the terrified visitors, followed by voices. Was there someone on the other side!? Flaffy leapt back with a cry before a grotesquely severed wrist slumped through the air before her nose, taking another jump back to beside her trainer, a stream of white orbs separated from her fleece and dived at 'Them'. 'They' were unfazed by the cotton soft orbs and continued forward. However 'They' suddenly began to slow as Cotton Spore took effect gluing their feet to the concrete path. But some of 'Them' still continued on leaving the affected limbs behind.

* * *

The Survivors surged forward through 'Them'. Kiriko and her daughter Rei swiftly broke ranks, followed by Saeko, to viciously stab the backs of two former human skulls and pull them away from each other between which Saeko dived and like a machine happily liberated the heads of 'Them from the bodies as she watched her footing. Saya quickly removed another two from the ranks and ordered Alice and Shizuka to begin moving forward.

Khota giggled as the small pistol rose upwards in his grip. "I finally get to shoot." Another two fell allowing Takashi pass by unharmed.

"You seem to be having fun." Takashi grinned, adding another kill to his overall score, as Hirano caught up followed by Saya, Shizuka and Alice.

"It IS fun." Khota replied, pausing a moment to take out another. "At least, you have to keep telling yourself that it is." He added in a less excited tone.

The ornate sword slid smoothly into the eye socket. "Otherwise it will break you." Saeko added with a smirk.

The bodies littered the path held firmly in place by the odd white substance of which the survivors made certain to avoid.

Another cry from beyond the wall of rotting flesh came forth causing the group to halt for a moment. Takashi felt his throat tighten to the familiar sound of panic. The heavens bellowed in anger sending a pillar of light down upon 'Them' drowning out the screams of fright from the survivors as their eyes burned white.

* * *

Dylan fell to his knees, a stench familiar to pork slowly churned up the contents of his stomach, with a combination of fear and relief. He turned to stare at Flaffy whom held a similar combination of emotions upon her pink face, he breathed a shallow laugh. The parasol thudded to the ground and lay there forgotten.

"You did it." Dylan wrapped his arms tightly around Flaffy's neck. "Wait! What about those other people?" Releasing his Pokémon from the hug Dylan looked over the charred remains of what were once people turned nightmares. Dylan unsteadily rose from the ground. "Flaffy…please tell me you didn't hit them."

Flaffy simply whimpered in reply. She had been in such a state of panic that specific targets for her Thunder attack had been the last thing on her mind.

"Oh no." Dylan squeaked, tears of terror already starting to build. "H…hello?" He spoke. A few weak groans replied, though he was uncertain if they made him feel better or worse. Anxious eyes darted over the burning corpses.

A flicker of movement just ahead caught his eye, a flash of crimson metal and purple hair stood out against the rain and smouldering limbs. Dylan gasped, ignoring the rancid taste the air carried, feeling an odd combination of fear and joy rise up in him.

"Hold on, we'll be right there." He spoke above the roaring downpour, turning to Flaffy who was now shivering uncontrollably. "Come on." He said to her, leaning down and motioned her to climb on his back.

Flaffy's eyes flickered between her trainer and the sea of blackened husks. She closed her eyes and scrunched up her face to summon all her remaining courage before scrambling up her trainers back to look over his right shoulder, shivering from the icy rain that ran through her thin coat as Dylan held her feet to keep her steady. Under normal circumstances Dylan would've returned Flaffy to her pokeball and out of the rain, but these were not normal circumstances; there were Zombies everywhere and, in all honesty, Dylan felt a lot safer with another pair of eyes watching his back while he tip-toed cautiously towards the possibly living person, ignoring the other moans and movements that he caught at the edge of his vision. Finally reaching his destination Dylan looked down at the person who lay face down making her, the person appeared to be a her going by the hour class shape of the blood speckled coat, purple hair hide her ears. Grimacing at the stained blade in the woman's right hand, and ignoring the dark thought now trying to push its way into his mind, Dylan leant down towards her left hand and gently shook it by the wrist.

Dylan nearly screamed when the hand quickly snapped out of his grip and planted its own warmth around his, a small jolt of electricity slashed down his spine from Flaffy, before withdrawing with a hiss of pain. Two blue eyes, the pupils slowly enlarging back to their normal size, blinked venomously up at him before mixing with fear upon sighting Flaffy glaring back at her from Dylan's shoulder.

"Saya…Khota…" A weak voice called, a little girl with pink hair sat up clutching a small canine pokemon in her arms.

Other voices groaned and replied with odd words; Dylan was puzzled for a moment before recognising the words as Japanese, while not exactly what he had been hoping for at least he could be certain that he wasn't in Unova or Kalos which spoke English and French respectively. As the other survivors got up and gathered, seven in all if you counted the woman now standing up infront of him, nearly all of them holding a firearm of some kind and glaring at him. Dylan was no expert on law but he was certain that none of them were old enough to own any of them, expect that blonde with unnaturally large breasts.

The thinner and taller of the two boys stepped forward, the rest of the group following after him, till he was level with the purple haired woman. He spoke, pointing the barrel of the gun at Dylan.

Dylan blinked, he had understood nothing. "Sorry. I don't speak Japanese, um, English." Dylan raised his hands and shook his head as he spoke, constantly cursing his past self for being an absolute dick in school instead of actually studying. He might've been a professor by now if he had, and not stuck in some horror movie.

* * *

Hurrah I finally got off my butt and updated, though I'm not too happy with this chapter so I may edit it at some point in the future. I suppose you're all wondering why this one took so long and it's because of two reasons 1) I'm lazy and 2) the manga updated throwing some ideas out the window and bringing in other.

Also about Dylan being fine with lighting but the others not, just think about all the places Trainers go; volcanoes, miles under the ocean without equipment, deserts so I think they're pretty close to being super-humans in some respects.

LANGUAGE BARRIER! I love pretending to be a writer, I get to be cruel with no karma :D


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